Congressman Smith: New State Dept. Policy Puts Internet Repressive Regimes on Notice

“This is a historic day. Today, the U.S. is taking the first step
toward tearing down the Great Firewall. The repressive regimes and the
businesses that enable the censorship, political persecution and stifling
of human rights need to understand that there will be more scrutiny to
follow and they must change their ways,” said Smith — Chairman of the
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operations
— and a driving force behind exposing intternet abuses by dictatorships and
U.S. corporations who have been complicit in helping repressive regimes.

The State Department’s Global Internet Freedom Task Force (GIFT)
Strategy announced today is organized around three priorities — monitoring
Internet freedom in countries around the world, responding to challenges to
Internet freedom and expanding access to the Internet. The GIFT Strategy
aims to achieve these priorities by — among other things — spotlighting
and protesting abuses of Internet freedom, pressing the message of Internet
freedom in official dialogue and promoting innovative approaches to combat
Internet censorship.

Smith, who in February of 2006 held a landmark seven-hour hearing on
the issue of internet freedom, said this strategy “sends the message that
the U.S. government means business.”

Smith added, “This new strategy puts internet repressive regimes on
notice and shows we mean business, but it also sends a message to the
corporations that are enabling these abuses that it is good business to
promote human rights.”

“The Global Online Freedom Act” seeks to codify the U.S. strategy
announced today and go further by prohibiting U.S. Internet companies from
cooperating with repressive regimes that restrict information about human
rights and democracy on the Internet and use personally identifiable
information to track down and punish democracy activists. The bill would
make it a crime for Internet companies to turn over personal information to
governments who use that information to suppress dissent.

“There are two pillars to every dictatorship — secret police and
propaganda. The Internet companies that comply with these regimes enable
dictatorships to impose both pillars by allowing them to spread lies and
find people whose only crime is wanting freedom and democracy,” said Smith.

Authoritarian regimes including China, Belarus, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran,
Laos, North Korea, Tunisia, and Vietnam are all known to block, restrict
and monitor the free flow of information on the Internet. In some of the
more egregious cases, democracy activists have been tracked down and
incarcerated for their online communications. American IT companies
Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and Cisco Systems have willingly assisted repressive regimes
censor information, monitor Internet usage and punish political dissidents.

Smith first introduced his legislation just days after he convened his
day long hearing at which representatives from the major US Internet firms
Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and Cisco Systems testified that they have
complied with censorship laws and/or provided personally identifiable
information about Internet users to repressive regimes in countries where
they do business.

The “Global Online Freedom Act” was approved by the House International
Relations Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations
Subcommittee earlier this year, but time ran out before it could be
considered by the full House during the 109th Congress.

“These dictatorships have enlisted American companies to aid and abet
their Internet censorship campaigns to prevent the spread of democracy and
quash any discussion of dissent. We need to make it clear to these
companies that they need to understand they have a responsibility to stand
with the oppressed, not the oppressor. My bill will hold them to that
standard and I will work to enact it into law in the next Congress,” said
Smith.

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Contact: Patrick Creamer of the Office of U.S. Rep. Chris Smith,
+1-202-225-3765